Ever wondered what non-financial skills it takes to be a superior financial professional?

Senior management and business development veteran, Mitch Pisik, has crafted a list of the top seven non-financial skills you need to succeed in finance for website Investopedia. The results are both a statement of the obvious, and a surprise.

At the top of the list, and something that should be absolutely obvious to all, is communication.
With a rising number of CFOs now speaking externally and strategically on behalf of their companies, it’s not surprising to find communication prowess an even more highly prized skill for today’s modern financial professional than ever before. As well as knowing the numbers, you must also be a strong
speaker, writer and maintain presentation skills.

Hand-in-hand with this is relationship management. For financial planner Judith Cane from Canada-based Antara Financial Group, success in finance can be found with 15 per cent technical knowledge and 85 per cent psychology.

Perhaps more surprisingly is the need for marketing skills and an aptitude for technology. Most companies are pushing for a more customer-focused mentality internally, so aligning with marketing and understanding its increasingly strategic role in business is a key advantage.

And no matter where you work, software will be a key platform to performing your job, but understanding the role technology plays will also help today’s financial professional understand the importance of technology investment in growth, innovation and productivity.

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